4 Parking Security Essentials

To account for high traffic levels during the evening, lighting is a key focus for the Wave Mixed-Use Parking Facility in Atlantic City, NJ. Plentiful fixtures, an open design, and light paint colors create good visibility and a clean appearance for this 1,180-space structure that serves a variety of area businesses. View Larger

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To handle the volume of pedestrians and traffic, careful attention was paid to signage and clearly marked driving lanes at the Red Rose Transit Authority Queen Street Parking Structure in Lancaster, PA. The garage provides close to 400 parking spaces and user incentives for nearby bus, trolley, and Amtrak lines. View Larger

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What kind of access control does your parking use? Credentials are an effective measure to ensure that those in your garage or lot have pre-approval. The same methods you use inside your facility can be translated to parking users, such as ID and smart cards or issued passes. Public parking areas can also use sticker tags, payment options, or valet services to control access. View Larger

How safe is your parking lot or garage? From personal theft and assault to vandalism and public intoxication, a parking area can supply perpetrators with easy targets and tempting assets.

Despite a garage or lot’s vulnerabilities, facility managers have an arsenal of security tools and design measures they can implement to create a safer parking environment. Focus on these four strategies to protect occupants, their valuables, and your property.

“If a parking area is dirty, has a poor layout, or looks unsafe, clients and visitors develop a negative image for that business,” says G. Robert Harkins, associate vice president for Campus Safety and Security at the University of Texas at Austin, which houses 15,000 parking spaces over multiple lots and nine garages.

Would-be aggressors also interpret an unkempt parking area as a sign that the property isn’t monitored. A poorly maintained lot or garage suggests it will be easier to commit a crime because no one from management will thwart or catch unwanted activity.

Consider yearly touch-ups to paint and deep cleaning for lighting fixtures that have become dingy. Concrete floors can also be pressure washed to remove skid marks, oil stains, dirt, and other debris.

Landscaping can serve as a passive barrier if properly maintained, but overrun ledges and trees can create blind spots. “Landscaping should be non-intrusive. It shouldn’t create places to hide or interfere with a person’s visibility of their surrounding environment,” says Harkins, who is also the co-chair of the International Parking Institute’s (IPI) Safety and Security Committee.

Focus on Lighting
Give your lighting a hard look, stresses Geary Robinson, parking and transportation services director for Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and a member of IPI. Dark shadows that can conceal aggressors, reduced visibility for pedestrians and vehicles, and inadequate color rendering all chip away at safety.

Not sure if your parking area has a lighting problem? Look at the behavior of visitors. If people feel compelled to use their headlights in your garage or cars are grouped in your lot closest to light poles, these activities indicate that users may be uncomfortable with the level of darkness.

Because no single light source is right for all parking situations, have a lighting consultant evaluate your parking areas, Robinson recommends. Lumens, footcandles, and fixture types are best selected when accounting for site design, particularly for retrofit projects. A consultant can also guide you through options that will address safety and energy concerns.

You can also take advantage of natural light using the same strategies as you would with any building project. Uncluttered layouts, plentiful outside views, transparent interior walls, open stairwells, and glass elevators will bring natural light deep into the space.

“We routinely increase the floor-to-ceiling heights so it allows the throw of light to disperse more. People don’t feel as enclosed if they have more headspace,” says Chris Gray, a project manager with TimHaahs, a firm specializing in parking design.

Another lighting strategy is to use paint. Dark colors may have been popular in the past, but they also absorb light. A new coat of bright paint on the walls and support columns will reflect light and is an inexpensive solution that can simultaneously give the interior a facelift.

For underground or windowless parking garages, use a reflective paint or stain on ceilings and floors – glossy surfaces bounce light more effectively, as opposed to the dull color of concrete used in most garages.

Enhance Surveillance
Use an eye in the sky to monitor parking spaces, entrances, and narrow areas such as stairwells and corridors, Gray recommends. Not only can surveillance catch a crime in progress, but documentation of a vehicle accident, assault, or even a slip-and-fall incident can be valuable.

Beyond the benefits of monitoring, the mere presence of security cameras are sometimes enough to ward off an aggressor, prompting them to seek a less secure target. Surveillance also sends a message to occupants and visitors that their safety is a priority for building management.

As with any surveillance technology, make sure you have appropriate signage announcing the use of cameras so you are in compliance with your jurisdiction’s privacy laws.

The Wave Mixed-Use Parking Facility in Atlantic City, NJ, a TimHaahs project, uses internal and external surveillance. The 1,180-space garage supports the public parking needs of nearby retail, restaurants, hotels, and two convention centers. With a large influx of daily users, surveillance is an invaluable security measure.

In addition to cameras placed within the garage footprint for safety, several 360-degree pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) units were installed on the top of the exterior stair towers. Not only does parking management have access to the feeds at will, but the external video feed is shared with the police department, explains Gray. It allows them to take advantage of the view from one of the taller structures in the vicinity as well as eliminate a dead spot at a busy intersection.

Don’t overlook the human element of surveillance either. “Parking attendants are another indirect security measure,” Gray observes. “Having someone there 24/7 adds another level of comfort.” You can also tap them to pull double duty and monitor video between clients.

If your garage or lot is unattended, try scheduling frequent patrols, particularly in the evening. If you have contract security, you can also have guards available to escort occupants back to their vehicles.